Has France Lost Its Balance?

Randa Takieddine      Al-Hayat     2003/09/10

The unanimous European decision to enlist Hamas' political wing on the European list of "terrorist organizations" and freeze its assets is most regrettable. The huge U.S. efforts exerted on countries such as France have succeeded, despite the traditional balance brought by the Gaullist policy regarding the Arab cause.

It is most unfortunate that the European Union was unanimous in taking this decision to penalize Hamas, even while Israel has been violating the Israeli-European partnership agreement for years, without any European procedure taken to punish it. Israel has been selling on European markets its agricultural foods, produced in the illegal settlements built on Palestinian territory, even though it doesn't have the right to sell them as Israeli products. 

At the initiative of France, Europe has often threatened to penalize Israel, but it never did, despite the fact that the partnership agreement includes a clause binding Israel to commit to the Oslo Accords and respect the international laws, including ceasing settlement building and dismantling illegal settlements. Despite this and the fact that Israel is pursuing its settlement policy and violating international laws, Europe currently imports 70% of Israel's agriculture production, tax-free.

Unfortunately, France caved in to the American pressures, as well as to those of its partner Germany. Indeed, it was the German Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer who first called for this measure against Hamas, for obvious historical reasons. But France's position in this regard raises questions, because it departs from its traditional approach and understanding of Arab issues. In fact, the only European country that boasts a clear strategy on how to deal with the Islamic movements in the Arab and Islamic world is France.

As for the U.S., whether it is in Afghanistan or Iraq, it has failed to face the Islamic movements other than through military and police intervention, as if these movements were public institutional forces. The U.S. ignores the fact that these movements take their roots in their societies, and there are objective reasons accounting for their rise, namely the failure of left-wing and nationalist movements to carry through their political and intellectual projects, and to protect themselves from U.S. hegemony.

President Jacques Chirac had made sure that France enjoy strong relations with the Arab and Islamic world, and that Europe be characterized by such relations, mainly because that region is located on Europe's southern borders and is a major ally. The French President, along with his advisors and ministers, has a deep knowledge of the Islamic movements, and understand that these cannot be dealt with from a security and military perspective. This is why France and Europe never resorted to these movements to fight Communism, as did the U.S. in Afghanistan for about 20 years.

Since the beginning, France considered that it had to deal with these movements at a political level, in a bid to bring them to relinquish violence and extremism and allow them to participate in the political game in those countries they were established in, while in parallel working on restricting and isolating those movements similar to Al Qaeda. This explains why France has thus far been opposed to enlisting Hezbollah on the terrorism list, which the U.S. has been demanding. However, France explained its recent acceptance to put Hamas on the terrorism list as resulting from the operation last August, which killed 23 Israelis, and which was claimed by the Palestinian movement.

Obviously, killing innocent civilians is unacceptable and cannot be defended or justified, and the images displayed on TV channels around the world have a considerable impact on the public opinion; but the European decision came at a bad time. Hamas has proven that it can commit to the truce, which lasted around a month and a half, in accordance to the agreement it had reached with former Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas. This commitment lasted until August 15, when Israel violated it by assassinating officials from Hamas in Nablus and from the Islamic Jihad in Hebron, which pushed both organizations to carry out their operation on August 19.

Israel continued with its targeted assassinations policy, and has now obtained Europe's go ahead, in addition to the American one, to pursue this approach, as no one can stop it from killing "terrorists," in accordance to both the U.S. and European perception.